Agata Rucińska
Pupilla

The exhibition is an attempt to confront “a girl” and its semantic reference. “I feel that the period of girlhood is a lack of the sense of subjectivity, of identity, of representation, and at the same time, more importantly, of growing, expecting and creating a new shape of one’s character,” says the author.

Exhibition opening: 10/02/2023 (Friday) at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Galeria Labirynt 2, ul. Grodzka 3, Lublin
Accessibility: The exhibition is held in a space not accessible for people with motor impairments. The exhibition is sensory-friendly for people sensitive to strong stimuli. Opening interpreted into the Polish Sign Language (PJM); interpreter: Jolanta Gromada; and into Ukrainian; interpreter: Volodymyr Dyshlevuk.
Exhibition on display: until 19/03/2023 (Tuesday–Sunday, 3:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.)
Admission: free

Curator: Waldemar Tatarczuk

“Pupilla” is the act of saying goodbye to a period of immaturity. The starting point for creating this project was the ambiguity of two Latin words: pupilla, meaning pupil*, girl, doll, schoolgirl, and pupa – which is a chrysalis, a stage before complete transformation, prior to the insect reaching its adult form and becoming an imago.

It is an approach to the closure of immaturity, and an attempt to transform and mould oneself. It is also a clash with the cultural or even pop-cultural image of a girl, and its consequences.

*The pupil is a black hole located in the centre of the iris of the eye that allows light to strike the retina. It protects the interior of the eyeball from excessive lighting. Its diameter is 3 to 8 millimetres and varies according to changes in lighting, and the contractions of the sphincter and dilator muscles of the pupil. The pupil’s width is related to the extent of positive or negative emotional arousal experienced by a person. A good mood dilates the pupil, while a bad mood contracts it. Source: Wikipedia

Agata Rucińska (born 1991) – a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw at the Faculty of Media Art and the Jagiellonian University – Theatre Studies programme. She works mainly with photography, video and sculpture. The author of video projections for plays in TR Warszawa, Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw, Polish Theatre in Poznań, Stary Theatre in Kraków, S. Żeromski Theatre in Kielce and many theatre festivals. Participant of exhibitions in Poland and abroad, among others at Monopol Gallery, Studio Gallery, Fort Institute of Photography (Warsaw), Centre for the Meeting of Cultures, Galeria Labirynt (Lublin), BWA Jelenia Góra, Petach Tikva Museum of Art (Israel). A participant in an artistic residency in Chernivtsi and an exhibition at Bunker Gallery (Chernivtsi, Ukraine) and the Blurborders Art Exchange festival (Bangkok / Sakon Nakhon, Thailand), the results of which were shown at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. She has collaborated with EMST in Athens.